AEE Episode 16: How to See English Improvement Faster
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This is an All Ears English Podcast Episode 16: How to See English Improvement Faster. Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection.

with your American hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA. If you want to connect with someone in a conversation in English, then you must be present. Today, Lindsay and Michelle talk about how to force yourself to stay present to build better relationships in English.

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Hey, Michelle, I have a question for you. Oh, I'm excited to hear it. What is it? Okay, here it is. Do you feel like you are good at staying in the present? I feel like I am awful at it. Oh, no. Oh, no. Tell us what's going on. Tell us why it's hard. I don't know. I tend to like, you know, think about all the things for the future. Like sometimes I'm living like...

you know, years into the future and considering what may or may not happen. And it's so bad. And I've talked with friends about this of like, just being like, I don't want to not enjoy the moments that I'm living with, especially now I'm a mom. Like,

Like I have a little one. I don't want to like miss out on these precious moments. Oh my gosh. So I need to get better at just like staying present, staying in the moment. I don't know. What about you, Lindsay? Or do you have any advice? Well, I mean, have you tried anything to get present? Have you tried any kind of meditation? Is there anything? Yeah. A little bit. A little bit. I've tried also like in the moment being like, oh, I want to recognize that this is like a nice

Yeah, that I'm living in, you know, for sure. Yeah. I mean, just snapping out of it. I wish I could like snap a rubber band on my on my wrist and be like, be present, be present. But yeah, no, I don't think I'm very good at it. But I've tried to learn how to do it over the years. I think I'm probably average. I'm not the worst, but I'm definitely not the best. I know people that are a lot more present than me.

And it just baffles me. By the way, good vocab word for our listeners. It baffles me. What does that mean? It's basically like it confuses me. Like, I don't know the answer. Yeah. When I see people that are just that present, I think, well, are they not worried about what's happening next? Are they not? Like, how...

how does their brain work? Right, right, right. But how does this, why are we talking about this for our, on this podcast for our listeners, for learning English? Guys, well, this is important for learning as well because when you learn, I mean, sometimes it's, I think it's very easy to like keep the goals in mind and you should always keep the goals in mind.

Like, why are you learning and everything? But I wouldn't always think about just like the future or the past, right? Like, oh, mistake you made about experience that you had. Like, try and live in this moment. Whatever happened is in the past and whatever is in the future is in the future. And try and take some time. I can understand like with the future, especially thinking about like, oh, like, why am I learning? Keeping that in mind, but don't let it take away from what's happening in this moment. So we wanted to share this quote.

right, Lindsay? Yeah. So I'm going to read the quote here and then we'll talk a little bit more about it. So here we go, guys. Your future is created by what you do today and not tomorrow. I mean, that's very straightforward. I would also think about this in the microcosm of just one conversation. Your brain literally does not have enough space to

to have a conversation, be engaging, ask questions, be interesting, and think three steps ahead to what happens if someone asks me a question that I don't understand, or what happens if this, that, how's the conversation going to end? You can't do it, guys. So don't try.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I just think that keeping this quote in mind can make learning English more fun, more joyful, right? Just like staying in that moment, enjoying the connections and what you're doing with people in that current moment and what you're learning at that time. And just like kind of stay in your head that way and not get too like flighty or out there.

Exactly. Don't get too flighty. So be present, guys. That is our message for today. Be rooted in yourself. Know that you are strong enough to make that connection with English speakers. They want to talk to you. And don't think three steps ahead. If you're a chess player, that's great. But this is not chess, right? We're not playing chess here. We're communicating and we're connecting. And there's a couple of website suggestions that we have, right, Michelle, for our listeners to get tuned into this way of living.

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Mm-hmm. Yeah, there's one, Tiny Buddha, tinybuddha.com. Yep. There's also Zen Habits, which is a common mindfulness blog by Leo Balbauta. And then I read the book, this book got me really into meditation back in like 2009, The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. And I'm sure our listeners know about this. It's been translated all over the world. But if you don't know about it, guys, it's a good gateway into meditation and mindfulness. Yeah.

All right. Sounds good. I'll have to check it out. Good stuff. Yeah. I mean, in the end, the takeaway, guys, today is stay rooted in you. You have a lot to offer. So connect. Don't think four or five steps ahead like a chess player. All right. All right. Very good. Guys, remember to follow All Ears English wherever you listen to podcasts. Don't miss us. We're on four days a week. And we're here to help you get you empowered for your career English and for your life.

Awesome. I love it. Lindsay, this was fun. All right. Take care. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to All Ears English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two-minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com forward slash fluency score. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time.

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